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Anderson Todd, 1921-2018

ANDERSON TODD, 1921-2018
Tucked back on a corner lot a block north of Rice is one of the courtyard houses Anderson Todd designed and lived in during his nearly 70 years in Houston. It’s shown above in all its flat-roofed glory. Like many of the buildings Todd dreamed up around town, the house rests on principles he took from German architect Ludwig Mies van der Rohe, his teacher at Princeton and mentor thereafter. Upon joining Rice’s then-not-so-modern architecture department in 1949, Todd set about implanting Miesian concepts in his students’ brains for the next 4 decades. He also found time to convince Mies himself to design 2 successive additions to the MFAH: Cullinan Hall and the Brown Pavilion, notes the Chronicle‘s Jasper Scherer. Todd retired from his professorial duties in 1992, and, last Friday, passed away at the age of 97. [Houston Chronicle] Photo: Swamplox inbox

3 Comment

A very wise man I had the honor of meeting a time or two. He tought me about detailing 1:1, collecting art from talented locals and that all chairs have a structure, form and utilitarian use. Similar to Architecture.

Dan Singer should stick to reporting on cattle museums and cease writing about architecture… this smarmy attitude is completely out of place in reference to Anderson Todd, who stands as one of the finest educators that Houston ever saw. Or Texas, for that matter.